This has been a long time coming. Namely my definitive treatise on the death
penalty. In which I clearly present all the main arguments against ever
imposing and carrying out a death sentence…in any circumstances and no
matter how heinous the crime. And follow that up with a series of possible
counter-arguments, and my unequivocal rebuttal to each one of them. Ergo,
this is in every respect a ‘take no prisoners’ essay!

On Capital Punishment has now been published in Parisiana magazine. You can read it here

Having never polled my extensive mailing list on the subject, I’ve of course
no way of knowing precisely where everyone on it stands with respect to the
death penalty. My educated guess is that the vast majority oppose it.
Comments are closed on this particular Parisiana page. And with good reason. The magazine is, as it should be, freely accessible to all and sundry.
Yet I’ve already seen the kind of scurrilous remarks that got posted onExpatica’s site after they published a version of my original Zahra Bahrami mailing.* Such as, “The problem with executions are that there are way too few, not too many.” Thus should you have something of interest to say, you’ll need to direct your response to me personally. You can contact me via this link.

What I do however ask of you is: IF you are in touch with any individuals
who either support capital punishment or are sitting on the fence, then by
all means send the link to my article on to them. As I say in the piece
itself, I am not in the business of preaching to the converted. Although
hopefully all that I’ve written will give you more than enough solid
ammunition to blow away any pro-death penalty arguments that may ever get
fired in your direction.

Ultimately it is those who continue to cling to wrong-headed views concerning capital punishment I am most wanting to reach. With all verbal guns blazing.

One year ago today, January 29th 2011, my friend Zahra Bahrami was hanged by the neck until she was dead. Murdered in cold blood, in Tehran’s Evin prison, by the evil regime that is still ruling Iran. And in all likelihood will continue to rule it for some time to come. While if it falls (or is taken out by…oy veh, please not them!), what will replace it? They thought the Shah was bad, now look what we’ve got. Has Libya been ‘liberated’? Well, the militias certainly think so. Or Egypt? Or…? Tja.

I never thought I’d find myself making a point of saying something positive about drug companies. Given that in far too many respects the pharmaceutical industry must certainly rank in the upper echelon of criminal organizations. (I’ve read enough learnéd articles, watched enough in-depth documentaries, spoken with enough ‘insiders’ to know that I’m on fairly solid ground in making this assertion.) Which doesn’t mean these dudes don’t frequently shower us with any number of exceptionally beneficial products. Far from it. Not only do I regularly gulp my fair share of Ibuprofen (you know, like when I’m feeling a trifle tired and still have work to do or places to go); but as someone who managed to get the clap all of eight times, rest assured that I heartily applaud (hah!) the happy existence of antibiotics. And did all the more so after reading how gonorrhea was treated before penicillin came along. (For an especially harrowing description, see Vance Bourjaily’s novel Confessions of a Spent Youth.) So yes, there are plenty of top-notch drugs around, including legal ones -:) Notwithstanding past horrors like Thalidomide, and despite a shameful plethora of harmful to outright deadly drug-industry malpractices that are still rampant today. From making sure the world stays awash with unneeded (and yet highly profitable!) medications to freely using the peoples of so-called third-world countries as guinea pigs for their potential poisons. In between which the list goes on and on, ad infinitum and ad nauseam.

So what then in God’s name could I possibly have good to say about the buggers?!

NoteWhat follows is my initial mailing on Zahra Bahrami’s execution. For a revised version of this mailing, which includes both an introduction and an afterword, see No Man Is An Island

Dear Friends,

In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 29th, the murderously barbaric Iranian regime hanged my friend, and my friend Jane’s friend, Zahra Bahrami. Her crime? To be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even though the (ugh!) Islamic Republic of Iran would like for the world to believe otherwise. Zahra was 46 years old and a dual Dutch-Iranian national. Only the Iranian government refused to recognize her Dutch citizenship and therefore consistently denied Dutch consular officials in Tehran any access to her. And today they killed her.